Biography:

Historical accounts of contact between human societies are useful analogues when considering contact between worlds. Archaeology can expand those historical accounts in some significant ways, and thereby contribute to understanding the full repertoire of human responses to contact.

Dr. Kathryn Denning is an archaeologist and anthropologist and works as Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her research examines scholarly and popular ideas about Others, their relationships to us, and how we can know them. The Others she studies include the ancient (in archaeology), the animal (in zoos), and the alien (in SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

SETI scientists have often drawn from archaeological and anthropologicalanalogues in thinking about what ETI might be like, what contact would involve,and whether or how meaningful communication might be possible. Dr. Denning has examined some of the arguments, and considered how current anthropology and archaeology might contribute to SETI discussions. In particular, she has published preliminary papers on several themes as they relate to SETI: theories of civilization; the lifetimes of technologically advanced civilizations; intercultural contact phenomena; and the theoretical challenges of deciphering communications in unknown formats and languages.

Ten thousand years ago, no-one on Earth was living a 'civilized' life. What hashappened since is remarkable and impossible to fully comprehend; yet, everyone has ideas about civilization, and how the world came to be as it is. Such understandings of civilizations on Earth inevitably influence speculation about extraterrestrial civilizations, in two ways. First, sometimes a specific Earthcivilization or historical experience is explicitly used as a basis forinferences about extraterrestrial civilizations. Second, more generalassumptions about the development and functioning of Earth's societies shapeconjectures about alien societies. This talk will address the latter, as Dr.Denning considers how we can use multidisciplinary approaches, and ourknowledge of Earth's civilizations, to our best advantage in SETI.

Links and further web information:
Research Overview and "SETI: Seeing the Night, and Anticipating the Alien"
Teaching Overview
Ten Thousand Revolutions: Conjectures about Civilizations